DoWeHaveAChoicee Book

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Do We Have a Choice?Towards more compassionate eating

Chan Kah Yein, Ph.D


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For all the humble birds and beasts.


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This book is a gift from others to you.

If you have enjoyed reading it, please pass it on.

Let it be your gift to others.


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About the Author

Chan Kah Yein holds a Ph.D in Mathe-

matics Education and teaches in a private

college. She is the founder-coordinator

of AnimalCare, a medical fund for stray

animals. She also gives public talks regu-

larly on ways to lead a simpler and more

spiritually fullling life. To date, she has

written seven books, and many of her

talks have been produced on audio CDs,

all for free distribution. With a love for all

things small and simple, her motto is to

embrace simplicity and travel light in life.

Kah Yein can be reached at

[email protected]

All her e-books can be downloaded free at

http://tiny.cc/paws

Her AnimalCare work is documented in

www.myanimalcare.org


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Also by the Author

Books

Pawprints on My Heart, 2008Seven Little Stories about Kindness to Animals

Little Steps, Joyful Steps, 2008The Humble Beginnings of a Dhamma Speaker

A Kite in the Wind, 2008Embrace Simplicity, Travel Light in Life

Indy Jones & the 4 Pillars of Kindness, 2009 A Story about Love, Compassion, Rejoicing and Letting Go

See You at Rainbow Bridge, 2010Saying Goodbye with Love and Serenity

Make Time While the Sun Shines, 2011 Anecdotes on Respecting Time and Tide

Audio Talks in CDs

How to Practise Right Livelihood and Still be Rich, 2006

Kindness to Animals, 2007

Awakening Kindness, 2007Creating Heaven in an Imperfect World, 2008

Dewdrops from My Heart, 2009 A Treasury of 28 Talks

Fragrance of the Violet, 2011 A Treasury of 20 Talks


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The love for all creatures

is the noblest attribute of man.

— Charles Darwin


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Contents

Acknowledgements

Prologue 1

1 The Lady in the Orange Saree 3

2 The Chick in the Burger 5

3 Are We Natural Vegetarians? 9

4 Old MacDonald’s Farm 135 Lessons from the Cows and the Crabs 21

6 Going Meatless Once a Week 27

7 Let’s Just Do it! 29

8 Of Onions, Garlic and Special Chopsticks 31

9 Hara Hachi Bu 33

10 The PB&J Club (for the Young-at-Heart) 3511 Of Aliens and Futuristic Apes 39

12 Reducing Our Carbon Footprint 49

13 All it Takes is Just 10% 51

14 Of Slaughterhouses and Battleelds 53

15 The Compassion of a Great King 55

16 Who Lives Longer? 59

17 Famous Vegetarians 61

18 Take Your Pick 63

19 A Daily Gentle Reminder 65

Epilogue 67


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Acknowledgements

My heartfelt thanks go to TY Lee for his valuable feedback on

my draft and his spontaneous generous sponsorship without

which this book would not even be published; Andy Koh, for

his very constructive feedback and review, and his immense

contribution to Chapter 11; and Lum Woon Foong for her

meticulous editing and proof-reading, a skill which I have yet

to pick up even after writing seven books (!). I also wish to

thank Hor Tuck Loon for spending time away from his very

busy schedule to do the beautiful layout of this book.

And to all of you – thank you for picking up this book, reading

it and passing it on…

May the animals benet from my humble endeavour.

With love,

kahyein 7th August 2011


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1

Prologue

This is NOT a book aimed at making you feel bad that you

still eat meat. It is also not a book aimed at trying to convert

you into a vegetarian.

Rather, this is a book that invites you to consider EATING

LESS MEAT. I was motivated to write this book because

I observed that most people have a natural compassion for

animals. Many do want to eat less meat, not just for health

reasons or to reduce one’s carbon footprint, but for the

simple reason that we all know animals suffer so much at the

slaughterhouses. Out of compassion for these animals, most

people do want to eat less meat. But sometimes we just do

not know how to start, or maybe we need some motivation to

push us to do it.

That is the aim of this book – to give us that little push…

towards more compassionate eating.


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2

I will not kill or hurt any living creature needlessly, nor

destroy any beautiful thing, but will strive to save and

comfort all gentle life, and guard and protect all natural

beauty upon the earth.

– John Ruskin


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3

The Lady in the Orange Saree

I grew up eating meat, but not extravagantly. And not all meats

too. Just chicken, sh and the occasional pork. Like many

Chinese families, we did not eat beef or mutton.

I remember the rst time I ever came across a vegetarian. I

was seven years old then. My mum had brought me to a sports

carnival at her school, and she pointed out this absolutely

stunning Indian lady dressed in a pale orange saree. This

lady was also a teacher in the school. She was so ravishingly

beautiful; I was completely entranced. Her hourglass gure

was “out of this world”, and her complexion was awless,

but what caught my eye was the radiance which shone from

her face. The rst thought that occurred to me was that she

must be a very kind and compassionate person. I decided there

and then that only a kind person could possibly have such a

beautiful face. Then, my mum whispered to me, “She is a lifevegetarian. Her whole family is, too.”

That was the rst time it dawned on me that being vegetarian

might not be such a bad idea, after all.

Till today, I still remember the radiant face of that beautiful

goddess who descended upon this Earth, resplendent in a paleorange saree, and walked in front of me at the sports carnival.

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4 | Do We Have a Choice?

John Keats was right: A thing of beauty is a joy forever.

My mum observed vegetarianism every new moon and fullmoon day, as did my grandmother. Like all good mothers, my

mum never compelled us to follow what she did. She just let

us watch, and if we asked, she would answer. And so, I grew

up eating meat, but the idea of becoming a vegetarian was

always at the back of my mind.

When I was twelve, my family embraced Buddhism. As withmany Chinese Buddhists, we would observe vegetarianism

every new moon and full moon day, and on our birthdays. I

remember asking the nuns at the temple why they are full-

edged vegetarians whereas we don’t have to be. “It’s because

you are still young and you need to grow, and your parents

need to work, you need the energy”, they told me. That made

sense to me at that time. So I accepted it as it was.

But throughout my childhood I continued to remember the

beautiful lady in the orange saree.


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5

The Chick in the Burger

In my twenties, I began to feel very sorry for the pig, so I

stopped eating pork altogether. I had never liked Bak Kut

Teh (a popular Chinese pork dish) anyway, so it wasn’t a big

sacrice.

When I was pregnant with my two children, my parents

turned vegetarians for the entire duration of both my

pregnancies. They believed it would be good for the unborn

child. Similarly, when my brother and his wife were expecting

their child, my brother too observed vegetarianism. He liked

it so much he decided to be vegetarian for life. Soon after, his

family and my parents became full-edged vegetarians as well.

I had always considered going vegetarian. Since I cooked our

meals at home, I was in control of what we ate. Gradually, I

reduced our meat intake at home. I stopped cooking chicken

stew and, instead, only used a small amount of minced

chicken meat as a condiment in our vegetable dishes. Next, I

stopped buying sh. My daughter and I did not miss the taste

of meat. We gured it’s all in the mind. The tongue may want,

but the head and heart can control the tongue.

One day, my son saw a PowerPoint slide I was preparingfor my talk on Kindness to Animals. It showed the picture of a

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live chick sandwiched between two buns, and I had put the

caption “Do we have a choice?”. Straightaway, he then told me

we could dispense with the minced chicken meat. “Let’s not

cook meat at home anymore”, he said.

So that was it.

I stopped buying minced meat, and, from that very next day,

I stopped cooking meat altogether at home. Nowadays,

the only meat I buy is chicken meat for the cats, and that isbecause cats are carnivores and they have to eat meat. We are

omnivores, so we get to choose. We can be total vegetarians,

or we could just eat less meat. We cannot force carnivorous

animals to be vegetarian – that’ll be going against nature and

that wouldn’t be fair.

For us humans, many are of the opinion that we need lotsof protein daily, but do we really? Vegetables are actually

already a very good source of protein. And, if you think about

it, human babies grow perfectly well on mother’s milk alone

for the rst 6-12 months of their lives, and I was told that

mother’s milk is just 3% protein!

I read that a typical cheeseburger provides 0.05 grams ofprotein per calorie whereas spinach provides 0.12 grams of

protein per calorie and lentils 0.07 grams per calorie. Some

nutritionists are also of the opinion that by eating a variety

of vegetables, we can get most of the essential amino acids

(protein) that our body needs. Variety is the keyword here.

Ever since the day my son said we’d stop buying meat, we do

not cook any meat at home anymore. But, when we eat out,


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Do We Have a Choice? | 7

take away or go for dinners, we eat whatever that is served.

This is our personal preference of not being a burden to our

hosts. Sometimes I just pick the vegetables in every dish, and

that’s really a very easy thing to do. There is no need to make

a fuss and announce to the whole world that we choose to be

vegetarian.

Since I give so many talks on kindness to animals, I’m very

often asked if I am vegetarian. To this I answer, “I’m a exible

vegetarian”, and that is the truth. When there are really no

vegetables, I will eat whatever that is available. I am exible.

I eat out for lunch every working day, and I don’t need to go

to any special vegetarian stall. All I do is to pick 2-3 vegetable

dishes at the local chap-fan (“economy rice”, a convenient local

fast food for rice and dishes at a very affordable price) stall

with a plate of rice. It is so easy.

Becoming vegetarian is a personal choice. It is sometimes a

hard one for many because we are so used to the taste of meat,

and our tongue (and brain!) demands it, due to decades of

conditioning. Also, for some people, their bodies may require

some nutrients that are derived from meat.

However, eating less meat is denitely doable. So if you’re

game to try this, if you have enough willpower to do it, for the

sake of saving those poor animals from being slaughtered and

so that we do not contribute so much to the demand for meat,

please read on…

This book is dedicated to you.


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8

Oh, my fellow men, do not dele your bodies with sinful

foods. We have corn, we have apples bending down thebranches with their weight, and grapes swelling on the

vines. There are sweet-avored herbs, and vegetables

which can be cooked and softened over the re, nor are you

denied milk or thyme-scented honey. The earth affords a

lavish supply of riches, of innocent foods, and offers you

banquets that involve no bloodshed or slaughter; only

beasts satisfy their hunger with esh, and not even all ofthose, because horses, cattle, and sheep live on grass.

– Pythagoras


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9

Are We Natural Vegetarians?

This chapter is extracted from http://www.alternative-

healthzine.com/html/are_we_natural_vegetarians.html

A cat or dog salivates with anticipated pleasure at the sight and smell of

raw meat, but very few humans exhibit this behaviour. For most meat

eaters, their chosen cut needs to be cooked before it becomes attractive. This

is just one factor that might make us wonder whether eating meat is natural

for us, and whether being a vegetarian is a realistic option.

Other clues can be found by comparing the anatomy and physiology ofhumans with different types of animals. It emerges that humans are far more

similar to fruit- and nut-eating animals – vegetarians such as monkeys and

apes, and to leaf- and grass- eating animals such as sheep, cattle, elephants

and koalas, than to carnivores.

The following two lists show the characteristics, rst, of carnivores, and

then of non-carnivores, or vegetarians.

Carnivores generally:

1. Have very short digestive tracts (three times their body length) to

excrete decaying meat waste rapidly.

2. Produce very strong stomach acid – typically 20 times stronger than

that of a non-carnivore – to digest bone, sinews and large quantities of

meat.

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3. Produce small amounts of saliva because digestion does not begin in

the mouth with carnivores.

4. Tend to have jaws that can only move up and down, which means that

they cannot grind their food and can hardly chew at all. Meat is torn

off with their long, sharp incisors and their canines, and is swallowed

in large chunks. The teeth are also shaped and angled to move with a

shearing motion to cut through bone and tough sinews.

5. Show great agility in catching prey, and have sharp claws and strong jaws to bring down, kill and consume prey.

However, vegetarians – non-carnivorous animals and humans –

generally:

1. Have long digestive tracts that are about 12 times the body length.

The great length allows the longer period of time that is needed for fruit and vegetables to be digested completely.

2. Have weak stomach acid, which is all that is necessary for the slow

digestion of grasses, grains and vegetable matter.

3. Produce a larger quantity of saliva, which also contains the enzyme

ptyalin. The plentiful saliva and the ptyalin begin the digestion of

grains, fruit and vegetables in the mouth. Carnivores neither eat these

kinds of food nor do they chew their food, which means that digestive

enzymes in their saliva are absent.

4. Have jaws that move with a grinding motion. This grinding together

of the relatively at teeth reduces the particle size of the food and

exposes it to the saliva and ptyalin in the mouth. Human canine and

incisor teeth are small compared to those of a carnivore and are,


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perhaps, better suited to biting tough vegetables rather than animal

skin and bone.

5. Have no claws, relatively weak jaws and not a great deal of agility.

For example, if a chicken is placed in an open space it would be

extremely difcult for a human to catch it; we don’t appear to be

designed for that sort of activity.

The evidence seems clear that humans have evolved to eat little or no meat

– to be vegetarian.

To sum it all up, here’s a quote I like:

You put a baby in a crib with an apple and a rabbit.

If it eats the rabbit and plays with the apple, I’ll buy you a new car.

– Harvey Diamond


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12

It is certainly not lions or wolves that we eat out of self-

defense; on the contrary, we ignore these and slaughterharmless, tame creatures without stings or teeth to harm

us. For the sake of a little esh we deprive them of sun,

of light, of the duration of life to which they are entitled

by birth and being. If you declare that you are naturally

designed for such a diet, then rst kill for yourself what

you want to eat. Do it, however, only through your own

resources, unaided by cleaver or cudgel or any kind of axe.

– The Roman Plutarch, in an essay “On Eating Flesh”.


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13

Old MacDonald’s Farm

Before you read on, please be forewarned that this chapter

describes unpalatable things that happen in some animal

farms, and you might feel discomfort reading it. We can

choose to skip this chapter and not nd out about the

horrible sufferings that go on in factory farms. By doing

that, we choose not to know the facts and probably might

continue eating meat, as much as before. Or we might

brace ourselves for the gore, read on and, at the end of

the chapter, make an informed decision from what ourconscience is telling us.

For the sake of the animals and for the sake of humanity, I

hope you do read on.

Here we go…

If slaughterhouses had glass walls,everyone would be a vegetarian.

– Paul McCartney

I think all of us know that modern-day factory farming is cruel.

In the days of yore, factory-farming was unheard of. Animals

were allowed to grow up naturally, and they lived freely on thefarm. Only once in a blue moon, when festivities arise, would

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the unfortunate animal be caught and slaughtered. Yes, that

was cruel too, but denitely not as cruel as what goes on in

modern-day factory farms, where animals are born and bred to

be slaughtered as food, and in the shortest possible time too.

Most of the meat we eat are baby animals who have never even

had a chance to grow up, what more, to live a natural life. Some

have never even seen the sun or walked on grass.

According to statistics from the book Eating Animals by

Jonathan Safran Foer, people nowadays eat 150 times more

chicken than they did 80 years ago. A survey in the UK

estimates that a meat-eater would end up eating at least

11,000 animals in one lifetime. This means that a meat-eating

person indirectly causes the death of thousands of animals in his

lifetime, if one accepts the supply-demand theory. Staggering,

isn’t it? And the saddest part is how much suffering eachanimal has to endure before it is slaughtered.

A modern-day factory farm is no less than a torture chamber

for these poor suffering animals. What I’m going to share with

you here in this chapter is what I’ve gathered from watching,

albeit reluctantly, some videos, which I never got to nish

because they were too gory, and reading about the conditionsin factory farms. Granted, maybe the practices in every farm are

different, but how humane can killing be? Killing is still killing.

Animals, having a heightened sixth sense, are traumatized

before they get killed. They feel so helpless, so sad and so

fearful. Just imagine for a moment if we are being carted down

an aisle to be slaughtered, and we are watching our friends andrelatives being slaughtered, wouldn’t we be frightened too?


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I have never visited a factory farm before. I don’t think I would

dare to. I’d probably cry for weeks and be traumatized for the

rest of my life.

Would you dare visit a factory farm or a slaughterhouse?

The following are written based on what I have read. Granted,

these practices may not be implemented in all farms. But as I’ve

written, killing is still killing. And killing can never be humane,

especially when a living being does not even understand whyhe/she is being killed.

At the chicken farm

Broiler chickens – Baby chicks are separated from their mother

at birth and kept in very crowded cages where there is literallyno room to move. Some of these animals become severely

depressed and feel intense stress, so they react by pecking each

other and themselves. To prevent this from happening, the

farmers sever the chicks’ beaks. There is no anaesthesia; there

is even a machine that cuts off their beaks. These animals live

in extremely lthy conditions. Diseases abound. The overuse ofgrowth hormones causes organ failure and the inability of their

legs to support their body weight. Some of the chickens (ducks

and turkeys, too) are forcefed through tubes inserted into their

throats. Finally, in a matter of 45 days or less, they are sent for

slaughter where, in some cases, their throats are cut and they

are left to bleed to death.

Poultry chickens – Hens are starved to increase egg production.


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The injured are left to die. Male chicks are ground up as animal

feed because they cannot produce eggs.

At the pig farm

Piglets are separated from their mother at birth. The mother-

pigs cry when their babies are separated from them. The

piglets’ teeth and tails are forcibly yanked off with pliers,

the male pigs’ testicles are torn out by force. Again, this is to

prevent the piglets from biting each other and themselves,

so all possible extensions from their little bodies and their

teeth are removed. Sows are articially impregnated with

insufcient recovery time. They live in crowded enclosures

with no room to turn around or lie down. After several

pregnancies, when the sow can no longer produce piglets,they are sent for slaughter. Even during transportation to the

slaughterhouse, conditions are extremely crowded, and this

sometimes results in death. Slaughter can sometimes be very

inhumane; the pigs’ throats are cut and they bleed to death.

Their limbs are severed piece by piece while they are still alive.

The injured and diseased ones are left to die of starvation.

At the dairy and cattle farm

Dairy cows – Dairy cows are hooked onto machines all

their lives where their milk is extracted 24 hours a day.

They are killed after 4-5 years when they can no longerproduce milk. Some are made into soup, animal food or low-

grade hamburgers. Male calves (veals) from dairy farms are


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separated from their mothers at one-day old and kept in tiny

enclosures that have never seen the light of day. They are fed

a liquid which is decient in iron and bre. This is done to

ensure that their esh would be tender and their leather pale

in colour. That is why veals are known as “tortured calves”.

Cattle – The horns of these cows and bulls are pulled out

by force to prevent them from butting each other. During

transportation, there is sometimes no food and water for

hours. There is overcrowding in the trucks and old cows

starve to death. Slaughter is inhumane; their limbs are severed

piece by piece while they are still alive.

Think occasionally of the suffering

of which you spare yourself the sight.

– Albert Schweitzer

Looking at the terribly crowded conditions that these

poor farm animals are kept in, it is no surprise, therefore,

that diseases abound in the farms. We hear of the Japanese

Encephalitis in pigs, the Mad Cow Disease and the Bird Flu.

When there are such outbreaks, the poor animals are culled,

sometimes in a very brutal and inhumane manner. We blamethem for causing the outbreak of diseases, but aren’t we the

actual culprits?

At the sh farm

Even sh slaughtering can be very inhumane. The sh issometimes killed by crushing its head with a mallet. Even


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before they are killed, “sh grading” can be a very stressful

and frightening process for the sh. “Death crown” is a term

to describe how the head of the sh is intentionally mutilated

by parasites causing sh to be in deep pain.

Out in the ocean

Sharks’ ns are severed and the sharks are thrown back into

the sea to die a slow death by drowning, because they canno longer swim without their ns. Dolphins and turtles are

sometimes trapped in shing nets resulting in their deaths.

Just before slaughter

I read from somewhere that just before slaughter, the animalis so frightened that its body would generate large amounts

of adrenaline (the ght-or-ight hormone). Some of the

animals are not even dead yet when they are skinned and

dismembered; this gives rise to even larger amounts of the

hormone. This excessive adrenaline remains in the dead

animal which then becomes the meat that is eaten. Excessive

adrenaline is toxic.

I know many people justify meat-eating by saying that the

manner in which the animals are slaughtered is “humane”. My

contention is how can any form of killing ever be humane?

Recognize meat for what it really is: the antibiotic-

and pesticide-laden corpse of a tortured animal.

– Ingrid Newkirk


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For more information on what goes on in the slaughterhouses,

please refer to www.meat.org.

* * *

You have survived through the most “difcult” chapter

in the book. It took me a lot of courage to actually write

it. These graphic details have to be told so that you know

how meat is produced. And, believe it or not, what I have

written has already been toned down. I would also needto qualify that whatever is described in this chapter may

not happen in all farms, but killing, in any manner, is still

killing. Being killed is very frightening when one does not

understand why one is being killed – the farm animals

face this heart-wrenching situation, by the billions. We

can make a difference to some of them by simply eating

less meat. That’s all it takes, really. If everyone eats a little

less meat, many animals would not have to be bred to be

slaughtered as meat.

A friend who read this chapter before I sent it in for

publication said she would drop chicken, pork and beef

from her diet and only eat sh now, plus lots of vegetables,of course!


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20

I’m no shrinking violet. I played hockey until half my

teeth were knocked down my throat. And I’m extremely

competitive on a tennis court… But that experience at the

slaughterhouse overwhelmed me. When I walked out of

there, I knew I would never again harm an animal! I knew

all the physiological, economic, and ecological arguments

supporting vegetarianism, but it was rsthand experience

of man’s cruelty to animals that laid the real groundwork

for my commitment to vegetarianism.

– Peter Burwash, champion tennis player in his book,

“A Vegetarian Primer”.


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21

Lessons from the

Cows and the Crabs

I think that spiritual growth compels us at a certain point

to stop killing our fellow creatures for the satisfaction

of our physical wants.

– Mahatma Gandhi

There are four stories here, and they are remarkably similar in

nature, yet they must be told.

The Slaughterhouse Worker and the Animals

Way back when we were living in the small town of Kuala

Kangsar, my parents knew a person who worked in the local

slaughterhouse. There came a point in time in his life when

this person wanted to seek a more spiritual life, so that wasthe time he befriended my parents. Through them, he learnt

that animals have feelings too – they may not be able to

rationalize as intelligently as we can, but they are capable of

feelings like love, loyalty, sadness and fear. He reected on

his experience in the slaughterhouse, and he totally agreed.

He told my parents how the animals would cry and howl

every morning at 5am as he carted them down the aisle to

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be slaughtered. He even told them he had difculty sleeping

at night as he would hear the animals’ cries in the still of the

night. He realized then that that was the reason he had never

been able to sleep peacefully. After some time, he changed

jobs and became a much happier person.

The Convicted Murderer and the Cow

This is a story I heard from an Australian monk. This monk

goes into the prisons to help rehabilitate the prisoners and

some of these inmates range from the mild-mannered to the

most hardcore convicted criminals.

One such prisoner was this extremely hardcore murderer who

had previously killed quite a number of people. Now, over in

the Australian prisons, the prisoners have to work for their

sustenance, and part of this work includes having to plant

their own vegetables, rear their own animals or work at the

slaughterhouse.

Mr Hardcore decided he’d do the job of the slaughter-man.

That would be the “executioner”, so to speak – the personwho stuns the animals and kills them after they are carted

down the aisle every morning.

Mr Hardcore had no qualms about killing animals. After all,

hadn’t he already killed a few humans before he was arrested

and thrown into the slammer? Humans, animals – what’s the

difference, he thought. Killing is killing, and he could do itwithout blinking an eye.


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So, day in, day out, Mr Hardcore went about his job dutifully.

One shot to stun, one shot to kill. It was routine. The animals

would be howling, screaming and crying for mercy, but Mr

Hardcore was unmoved. Until….

One day, the cows were howling and crying as usual as they

came down the aisle. But there was this one cow who was

absolutely calm as it neared her turn.

Mr Hardcore could not help noticing her unusual and almostfrightening calmness.

When it came to her turn, the cow looked straight into Mr

Hardcore’s eyes…and tears rolled down her face.

There wasn’t a sound. Just tears.

Mr Hardcore was stunned. Immediately, he dropped thestun-gun and ran out of the slaughterhouse, yelling, “I’ve

had enough of killing!! I’ve had enough of killing!”. From that

moment on, Mr Hardcore declared he would be a lifelong

vegetarian.

It took a cow to give a hardcore criminal a moment of

enlightenment which changed his entire life.

The Chef and the Crabs

This is a story of my friend, Ah Seong, who now runs a

vegetarian food stall with his mother in the foodcourt near my

workplace. One day, Ah Seong came to sit with me as I was


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having lunch at his stall, and he told me his story. He said,

“Do you know, sister…I used to be a bigtime gourmet chef in

my heyday. I earned thousands. But, one day, someone took

me to a talk and this lady-speaker spoke about the moral

wrongness in killing. After listening to that talk, I could not

sleep peacefully at night. I kept seeing the live crabs and sh

that I clobber to death every day in the restaurant. I couldn’t

even do my job properly anymore at the restaurant, and this

affected my livelihood. So I went back to the lady and told herit was all her fault for causing me this misery and ill-fortune.

I told her she had to solve my problem for me now. The

lady said: No worries, I’ll teach you how to cook vegetarian

dishes.”

And so, Ah Seong learnt the art of vegetarian cooking and

perfected the skill in no time. He then opened his vegetarianfood stall with the help of his mother. Never mind if he did

not earn as much as he used to, but at least he could now

sleep peacefully at night.

Ah Seong then proudly told me that he used to have very

bad eczema all over his body that no doctor could cure. The

rashes would are up and the itch would be unbearable. But,ever since he switched his culinary skills over to cooking

vegetarian, his eczema disappeared! I looked at Ah Seong,

and his face shone with a radiance that could only come from

a kind heart. He had found happiness in his job now and is

enjoying better health, and all it took was a lady-speaker who

spoke from her heart and a young man who was willing tolook deep within and nd the truths in his heart!


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The Aged Loyal Cow

This is a story from my colleague, Jas. Jas grew up in Sarawak.Her parents were dairy farmers. They kept cows to provide

milk for the family and also to generate income. Their cows

lived a long life and, even when they could not provide

anymore milk, Jas’ parents continued looking after them until

they passed on.

One day, many years after having served the family, one cowdeveloped a bad infection on her front hoof. Apparently, such

an infection is very hard to heal and would cause great pain.

Many farmers would sell these cows to the butcher rather

than nurse them.

One such opportunist-butcher came to know about this cow

with the infected hoof and offered Jas’ parents a fair price topurchase the cow.

Jas’ parents, despite being in need of the money, atly refused

to sell the cow. They told the butcher, “This cow has served

my family and provided milk for my children for so many

years. How can we sell her now that she is old and injured?”

After the butcher went away, the cow walked towards Jas’

parents.

She held up her injured hoof.

And she cried.

I would like to believe these were tears of gratitude.


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The cow lived on until she nally passed on peacefully at a

ripe old age.

I think I will let these three cows and those crabs speak for

the billions of animals who are born and bred to be killed in

the slaughterhouses as food for humans.

The question is not, Can they reason?

nor, Can they talk? but, Can they suffer ?

– Jeremy Bentham.

Animals share with us the privilege of having a soul.

– Pythagoras

Are you ready to eat less meat now?

If so, please read on…


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27

Going Meatless

Once a Week

On 12 May 2009, the city of Ghent in Belgium declared a

meatless day (Meatless Thursday) once a week in their city.

I believe they were the rst city in the world to ofcially

declare a once-a-week meatless day. Other cities in Belgium

followed after that. Cape Town was the rst African city to

declare a Meatless Monday too.

On 30 June 2011, a total of 29 organizations in Singapore

(including a student environment group in the National

University) endorsed a Veggie Thursday where participations

would go completely meatless for just one meal every

Thursday.

Going veggie once a week has been an age-old practice

amongst many Hindus and some Christians. It is also aChinese cultural practice to go vegetarian twice a month (on

the new moon and full moon day).

Former US President Bill Clinton has recently adopted a

vegan diet. While many people adopt a vegetarian or vegan

diet to reduce their carbon footprint or for health reasons,

which are all valid and noble reasons, let’s also consider itfrom the compassionate viewpoint. Animals suffer so much

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in the factory farms and slaughterhouses. Let’s reduce their

suffering by eating less meat so that the number of animals

born and bred to be slaughtered can at least be reduced.

I read that 269 million chickens are killed each day in the

US alone. What about the cows, pigs, goats and other meat-

producing animals? And these are not free-range animals who

have lived a natural life, but animals that are born and bred (in

terrible conditions) for one sole purpose – to be slaughtered

as food for us.

I know it isn’t easy to drop meat entirely from our diet and

go veggie immediately. Some people, depending on their

body constituency, might also need some meat in their diet.

The Dalai Lama, for example, was a lifelong vegetarian, but

his doctor advised him to take some meat since his health

required it, so he does that now. But minimally, of course.

Hence, for many of us, it may not be easy or feasible for us to

be strict vegetarians. If that is the case, why not go meatless

once a week, for a start? Then, if we like what we do and we

see the benet of doing it, we could gradually increase it to

twice or thrice a week!


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29

Let’s Just Do it!

If you’re all motivated to go meatless once a week or reduce

your meat intake every day, let’s get started now.

Whenever you’re supposed to go meatless but you feel the

urge to revert to eating meat, think of how the animal would

be slaughtered and how much it would suffer. Then, remind

yourself that you are a kind person and you do not want

to contribute to the suffering of these poor animals. Your

conscience will discipline your heart, your mind and your

tongue. Believe me, this really works! It wasn’t easy for me to

convert to forgoing meat initially too, and that was when I

realized how much I needed to discipline my tongue and my

brain! Ultimately, your heart will speak to you. Listen to your

heart…it knows the truths.

If you simply cannot go meatless, then reduce your meat

intake. Instead of having two types of meats, cut it down to

one. Instead of having chunks of meat, use sprinkles of minced

meat. Use meat as a condiment and not as the main dish.

When eating out, choose dishes that have lesser amounts of

meat. Here’s a good guideline: Get meat out of the centre of

the plate.

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What to eat

Eat fruit on an empty stomach, in between meals. Not asdessert.

For your meals, eat a variety of vegetables: 5-6 different

colours would be good. For example, you can stir-fry a mixed

veggie dish of cauliower, carrot, red capsicum, pumpkin,

broccoli, and brinjal. Make sure you always eat a green leafy

vegetable every meal.

Chew slowly. If you gulp down your food, you’ll denitely end

up eating more. By chewing slowly, your digestion would be

better as it begins with the saliva in your mouth.

Avoid excessive soya and gluten products, and PLEASE

avoid those fake “vegetarian meats”. I was told these heavilyseasoned fake meats are even more toxic than real meat itself!

My personal favourites are home-made vegetable soup, stir-

fried mixed vegetables, and, if I eat out, Indian vegetarian

dishes.

Remember that going veggie means eating a variety of

vegetables. There is no need for fake meats.


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31

Of Onions, Garlic and

Special Chopscks

I’m often asked in my public talks why some vegetarians

abstain from onions and garlic. Well, as far as I’ve been told,

there are two reasons: First, these condiments give us a rather

unpleasant breath. To put it bluntly, it stinks up our mouths!

For monks and nuns who would want to do chanting after

eating, it would be quite embarrassing if one belches in the

company of others, especially during a chanting session.

Second, I was told that onions and garlic are aphrodisiacs.Many vegetarians are aiming to become more spiritual in their

way of life, renouncing sense pleasures and the likes of it,

hence, aphrodisiacs won’t be very helpful in this department.

Then, there are those who insist on special cooking utensils,

special crockery and special cutlery for them to go vegetarian.

Ahh…I will reserve my comments on this, but for me this isunnecessary. Eating a vegetarian meal means not eating meat.

Never mind if the utensil has been used for meats before. But

that’s just my opinion, of course.

So, yes, I do eat onions and garlic, and I only need one dining

set at home!

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32

Think of the erce energy concentrated in an acorn! You

bury it in the ground, and it explodes into an oak! Bury a

sheep, and nothing happens but decay.

– George Bernard Shaw


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33

Hara Hachi Bu

Hara Hachi Bu means eat until you are 80% full.

Instead of adopting a meatless day once a week, you couldalso opt to just consciously reduce your meat consumption

every day.

The traditional Okinawa diet, with its emphasis on

vegetables, whole grains, fruits, legumes and sh with

limited amounts of lean meats, serves as a model for healthy

eating and healthy aging. It is purported to reduce our riskof cardiovascular disease, and it also helps to minimize free

radical production.

Stopping at 80% capacity is actually a very good strategy to

avoid obesity without going hungry, because the stomach’s

receptors take about 20 minutes to tell the body how full it

really is. So when you feel 80% full, you are actually already full!

In Okinawa, heart disease rates are 80% lower, and stroke

rates are also lower than in the US. Cholesterol levels are

typically under 180, homocystein levels are low and blood

pressure is at goal levels. Rates of cancer are 50-80% lower

– especially breast, colon, ovarian and prostate cancer. Hip

fractures are 20% lower than mainland Japanese and 40%lower than in the US. Dementia is rare.

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However, Okinawans who adopt Western eating styles

have similar rates of heart disease as in the US. Young

Okinawans, eating more processed foods, have a higher

risk of heart disease than their elderly relatives. A study of

100,000 Okinawans who moved to Brazil and adopted local

eating habits showed a life expectancy 17 years lower than in

Okinawa.

The Okinawans are known to be the longest-living and

healthiest humans on Earth.

The longer we live healthily, the more good we can do.

So, let’s hara hachi bu, and eat less meat!


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35

The PB&J Club

(for the Young-at-Heart)

How One Lunch Helps the Environment AND Saves

Animal Lives!

It’s all based on eating lower on the food chain. Everything we eat

comes from plants. No matter what you eat – beef or barley,

chicken or chickpeas, pork or peanut butter – all of it comes

from plants. We eat some plants directly – the vegetables, the

peanut butter – and we eat some of it converted by animals

into meat, eggs and milk.

Animals are inecient at converting energy

The basic problem is that animals are inefcient at converting

plants into meat, milk, and eggs. Relatively little of what they

eat ends up in what you eat because animals use their food tokeep them alive – to fuel their muscles so they can stand up

and walk around, to keep their hearts beating, to keep their

brains working.

The result is that it takes several pounds of corn and soy to

produce one pound of meat, or one pound of eggs, one pound

of milk, etc. The same goes for protein, other nutrients orcalories.

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It also takes several times more resources than what it took to

grow those plants: several times more land; several times more

water; a lot more fertilizers and pesticides; not to mention

diesel and gasoline to operate the machinery, pump the water

for irrigation and produce the chemicals.

What about seafood? Skip the sh and prawns and help the

planet just like you do by avoiding other animal products. It

takes a lot of fuel to catch sh. We catch about half of the

seafood we eat, and that shing produces greenhouse gases

because shing boats use fuel.

Concerned about the environment?

If you would like to slow global warming, do your part to save

water, slow deforestation and overgrazing, and cut back on

the pesticides and fertilizers used to grow your food, what

you could do is to change your lunch today (or tomorrow, if

you’re reading this after lunch).

Make a dierence one lunch at a time

Every time you eat lunch, you’ve got the option of cutting

out the middleman, or the middle-cow, middle-chicken or

middle-pig, and helping the environment.

This is where it gets really easy.

Pack a peanut butter and jelly (PB&J) sandwich instead of

buying a lunch based on animal products, like a meatburger,


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fried chicken or tuna sandwich. Want to do more? Have

another PB&J sandwich tomorrow.

Tired of eating the same thing….?

Make your own veggie sandwich!

All you need is bread, butter/mayonaise/tomato sauce, lettuce,

cucumber, carrot, tomato, or any of your favourite vegetables.

Be creative! Have fun!!

Concerned about animals in our food system?

If every meatburger, box of chicken nuggets, or bak kut teh meal

is a signal to slaughter more cows, chickens or pigs (by way of

telling the restaurant or the market to buy more meat), a mealthat doesn’t have any animal products is a vote to stop.

Animals endure so much suffering in the modern-day factory

farms. Let’s help them by not eating them, shall we?


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Not everyone can change their entire diet, but every decision

like that, where you eat a meal based on plants instead of one

based on animals, has a big environmental impact and is a vote

for animal welfare. You are saving lives. You are practising

compassion!

As custodians of the planet it is our responsibility to deal with all species

with kindness, love, and compassion. That these animals suffer through

human cruelty is beyond understanding. Please help to stop this madness.

– Richard Gere

Websites to motivate you:

www.loveusnoteatus.com

www.themeatrix.com

www.meat.org


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39

Of Aliens and Futurisc Apes

After I completed the rst draft for this book, I sent it to

my friend, Andy Koh of PetFinder.my, for feedback since

Andy had indicated to me some months back that he was

supportive of eating less meat.

Andy sent me very constructive feedback and further

thoughts on this issue, which I’d like to share with you in this

chapter.

Here are Andy’s thoughts:

One key reason why meat consumption has increased signicantly is our

conditioning by the meat-producing industry for their nancial benets.

They are making meat so abundant and affordable by introducing mass-

production methods – at the expense of the animals’ well-being and

humane treatment.

Second is the powerful marketing-in-action. From elegantly packaged

meat at the supermarkets to fun-lled experience at fast-food chains to

delicacies portrayed as prime at ne dining restaurants, people are far

detached and shielded from the ground zero cruelty of how the animals

are treated before ending up on their plates.

For those of my friends that cannot properly visualize the cruelty ofeating animals, I like to tell them a slightly gross Alien Invasion Theory:

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Imagine Earth was invaded by carnivorous aliens that consider humans

as delicious food. We are being hoarded into pens packed with thousands

of people lined up every single day to be decapitated, skinned alive or have

our throats slit, and to have our bodies dismembered, packaged and graded

separately for sale. Babies a few months old are taken away, fried crispy

and served as a delicacy (think suckling pig, or spring chicken). Food stalls

have half-mutilated human bodies hanging around for aliens to choose the

parts they’d like to devour.

This is exactly what we’re doing to the animals every day, but we do not see

anything wrong with it as we’re always on the winning side of the bargain.

Then again, on the contrary, when animal lovers tell me how disgusted and

inhumane people are in eating dogs and cats (as some people in certain

cultures do), I would tell them that is only as wrong or as right as us eating

pigs, cows, sheep or chickens. We only feel disgusted because we are very

emotionally attached to dogs and cats as pets, but the lives of other animals

we eat are in no way less precious nor are they dumber or deserve to die

more. So, whether we eat a dog, cat, chicken or cow, we are still equally as

bad or good.

If children grew up with cows and pigs as friends, I doubt they would ever

want to eat these animals.You are absolutely right, Andy. I’ve always felt that way, too.

Meat-eaters cry foul when they hear of other humans eating

dogs and cats but do not realize that they themselves eat

chickens, cows, pigs and goats. That is precisely why my vet, a

dog- and cat-lover, does not despise people who consume dogs

and cats. He says he has no right to do so when he himself is ameat-eater.


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This also brings to mind a young boy who attended one of my

talks. I had asked for a show of hands to see who, amongst

the audience, were animal-lovers. The boy later told me that,

although he loved cats and dogs, he could not bring himself

to say he was an animal-lover because he still ate meat (other

animals). I told him I salute him for his honesty, something I

seldom see in adults.

As for Andy’s alien invasion theory, I love that too! In my rst

book, Pawprints on My Heart, written in 2008, I shared a similar

alien story taken from the Vegetarian Society of Singapore:

Humans eat other animals for food, even though we humans can be perfectly

healthy without eating meat. We continue to eat other animals despite the

fact that these fellow animals are thinking, feeling beings who suffer greatly,

who are deprived of any semblance of a natural life. Why do we humans do

this to other animals? One reason we continue to unnecessarily use other

animals for food is that we have the ability to do so; our intellectual gifts

have allowed us to achieve dominance over other animals.

One way to help humans empathise with the plight of our fellow animals

would be to encourage us to imagine another species coming to Earth, a

species more intelligent than humans, a species who decide to eat us becausewe taste so good, a species that can do with us what they want because they

are more intelligent. The members of this species don’t hate humans; in fact,

they think we’re cute, at least some of us. Furthermore, this species aren’t

monsters, any more than we humans are monsters because we eat other

animals. It’s just that eating humans has become a tradition for them; it’s

what they’re accustomed to. It’s easy and convenient, plus, many of their

doctors tell them that human meat has lots of essential nutrients. (VSSeNewsletter (2007)).


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Remember the movie Planet of the Apes? Way back in the early

seventies, it was my all-time favourite movie. The movie was

so popular, it had four sequels and even became a television

series. At the point of writing this book, a remake has just hit

the silver screen.

The original 1968 movie tells the story of an astronaut crew

who crash-land on a strange planet (which they later found

out was our Earth) in the distant future. Although the planet

appears desolate at rst, the surviving crew members stumble

upon a society in which apes have evolved into creatures with

human-like intelligence and speech. The apes have assumed

the role of the dominant species and humans are mute

animals.

In the series, the apes did not eat humans (because apes are

vegetarians!). Rather, their scientists kept humans in cages

and used them as specimens for testing in their laboratories

(exactly as how humans use guinea pigs, rabbits, monkeys,

dogs and cats for animal-testing). They also used humans in

sport-hunting, like what humans have been doing for ages in

fox-hunting.

When I watched the movies and the subsequent television

series, I remember overhearing some adults saying that the

apes were such “savages”. How could they do such things

to the humans, they bellowed. As a child, I did wonder why

these adults did not reect on how we humans have been

(mis)treating animals. What the apes did were exactly what

we humans have been doing to the animals for a long, longtime. Why couldn’t they see this?


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I also read that when the Nazis used human-Jews for testing

at their laboratories during World War II, the world was

appalled at such “uncivilized and brutal” acts, yet isn’t this

exactly what (civilized) scientists do with animals in the

laboratories – pump chemicals into their eyes, stick electrodes

into their brains, lop off their limbs, while they scream in pain

and agony?

Animal-testing (or vivisection) is another issue which I

speak out against. With modern technology and advances

in medical science, there are alternatives to animal-testing

for our food and drugs. Qualitative Structure-Analysis

Relationship (QSAR) uses mathematical modelling to

calculate the efcacy of a product. Using cultured human

tissue is another alternative, and would denitely be more

accurate too, since we are biologically different from rodentsand other animals. Why are we testing our products on

animals when they are so different from us? Is it because

supplying animals to the laboratories is yet another money-

making venture for humans? What works for the animals may

not work for us, as proven, so tragically, in a drug developed

way back in the fties to combat the effects of morning

sickness in pregnant women. This drug worked beautifully

when tested on animals, but became a disaster when used

on humans. It was reported in 46 countries that thousands

of babies whose mothers had taken this drug were born

with deformed limbs, ngers and toes. The deformity did

not happen when tested on animals, but it did when used on

humans. One wonders if there was a retributive factor at playhere…


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Animal-testing is required by legislation before a drug can be

approved, but some scientists and biotechnologists are of the

opinion that animal-testing is not necessary.

I have studied the question of vivisection for thirty-ve years

and am convinced that experiments on living animals are

leading medicine further and further from the real cure of the

patient. I know of no instance of animal experiment that has

been necessary for the advancement of medical science; still less

do I know of any animal experiment that could conceivably be

necessary to save human life.

– H. Fergie Woods, M.D.

Consider the following facts taken from http://

whitecoatwelfare.org/aat-text.shtml: Penicillin kills cats and

guinea pigs but has saved many human lives.

1. Arsenic is not poisonous to rats, mice or sheep but is

deadly to humans.

2. Morphine is a sedative for humans but a stimulant for

cats, goats and horses.

3. Digitalis dangerously raises blood pressure in dogs butcontinues to save countless cardiac human patients by

lowering heart rate.

Animal experiments confuse the issues and their results will

never have scientic precision. There is absolutely no connection

between vivisection and human health. The general belief in the

value of animal experimentation is the result of brainwashingthat the public has been submitted to for a long time. Behind


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it are the pharmaceutical industries, which spend fortunes on

publicity and nance the research institutes and the universities.

– Arie Brecher, M.D.

As for using animals to test cosmetics, there are many

companies that do not use animal-testing anymore these

days. Patronize and support these companies, please. Animals

are tortured and mutilated for the sake of human vanity. It

doesn’t make sense to me why they have to die just becausewe want to look more beautiful. That is why I made the

decision not to use cosmetics when I was fourteen. I only

use toothpaste, soap and shampoo, and only those that have

not been tested on animals. For me, there is no need to look

younger than my age. I want to grow old gracefully!

Animals are already suffering so badly and being killed toprovide food for us, they should not have to be tortured for

the sake of our vanity. Remember that these poor guinea pigs,

rabbits, monkeys, dogs and cats are bred for this purpose and

they endure agonizing pain while being trapped in stereotaxic

devices in the laboratories.

And what about the cows, crocodiles, snakes, minks and dogsthat are being skinned alive to provide leather for handbags,

furs and other products. There is practically no end of ways

humans exploit, ill-treat and mutilate animals to satisfy their

wants.

On this note, Albert Schweitzer, Nobel Peace Laureate, 1952,

hit the nail on head when he said:


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Until we stop harming all other living beings,

we are still savages.

– Albert Schweitzer

My parents had a friend who simply refused to wear or use

leather. He wore sneakers to work (I do that, too!). He was

making his personal statement for animals just as I make

my personal statement by refusing to wear cosmetics. If you

feel strongly for the animals, make your personal statementand lead by example. Never underestimate what one person

can do or how a gesture, no matter how small, can make an

impactful difference.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,

committed citizens can change the world.

In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.– Margaret Mead

In 2001, Planet of the Apes was selected for preservation in

the United States National Film Registry by the Library of

Congress as being “culturally, historically, or aesthetically

signicant”.

Personally, I think the movie is very culturally signicant.

It offers us the opportunity to open up our minds and reect

upon how we humans, as a race, have been exploiting and ill-

treating, or, to put it bluntly, bullying the animals, just because

we are bigger, stronger and more capable of rational-thinking

and using tools.


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We often claim to be superior to the animals, but should

that superiority only be measured in might and cognitive

intelligence? What happened to superiority in compassion

and love? That, in my opinion, should be the measure of

humanity.

Are we able to put ourselves in their place, and feel for them?

Are we able to put aside our own needs and selsh desires,

and make some sacrices to reduce their suffering?

Christiaan Barnard, the South African cardiac surgeon

who performed the world’s rst human-to-human heart

transplant, shares his experience:

I had bought two male chimps from a primate colony in Holland. They

lived next to each other in separate cages for several months before I

used one as a [heart] donor. When we put him to sleep in his cage in preparation for the operation, he chattered and cried incessantly. We

attached no signicance to this, but it must have made a great impression

on his companion, for when we removed the body to the operating room,

the other chimp wept bitterly and was inconsolable for days. The incident

made a deep impression on me. I vowed never again to experiment with

such sensitive creatures.I believe it is not just chimpanzees alone that can feel and

suffer emotional heartache. All animals can, because all

animals are also feeling beings, just like us.

Now what is it that moves our very heart, and sickens us so much

at cruelty shown to poor brutes? First, that they have done us no

harm; next that they have no power whatever to resistance; it is


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the cowardice and tyranny of which they are the victims which

makes their suffering so especially touching.

– Cardinal Newman

Once you admit that we have the right to inict unnecessary suffering,

you destroy the very basis of a humane society.

– John Galsworthy

Before I get carried away with aliens and futuristic apes, allowme now to get back to Earth and address the connection

between meat-eating and our carbon footprint…


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49

Reducing Our

Carbon Footprint

Our carbon footprint is a measure of the amount of green-

house gas emissions caused by us. This carbon footprintcollectively contributes to global warming.

Shortly after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC) was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, they

issued a report which said that if we want to help put a brake

on global warming, there are three essential things which we

must embrace in our daily lives:

(1) Don’t eat meat.

(2) Ride a bike.

(3) Be a frugal shopper.

Not that difcult to do, is it? We could gradually reduce

our meat intake for a start (and gain better health), cycleto nearby places (and gain better health too), and buy only

essential things (and save money!). Isn’t that a win-win

situation for us and the environment?

Dr Rajendra Pachauri, one of the two recipients of the coveted

Nobel Peace Prize, in his acceptance speech in Oslo, Norway,

attributes his life-long philosophy to the Hindu principleof Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam. It means “the whole universe is one

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family”, and hence global efforts must be garnered to protect

global commons.

Reducing our meat intake and the use of motorized

vehicles, and buying only what we really need (not what we

want) can signicantly reduce the emission of greenhouse

gases that come from the animal-farming and meat industry,

the use of vehicles and the manufacture of goods.

Reducing our meat intake also contributes signicantly toslowing down the death of our planet.

Deforestation – Between 1960 and 1985, nearly 40 percent

of all Central American rain forests were destroyed to create

pasture for beef cattle.

Soil erosion – More than 4 million acres of cropland are lostto erosion in the US every year. Of this staggering topsoil loss,

85 percent is directly associated with livestock raising, i.e.

over-grazing.

Pollution of rivers/lakes/seas – Much of the excrement from

animal farming (which amounts to 20 times as much faecal

matter as human waste) ows unltered into our lakes andstreams.

Nothing will benet human health and increase chances for survival

of life on Earth as much as the evolution to a vegetarian diet.

– Albert Einstein


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51

All it Takes is Just 10%

I read that if people in the US were to reduce just 10% of their

total meat intake (which could mean going meatless for one

meal per week), it would free as much as 12 million tonnes

of grains. This is enough to feed all the hungry and starving

people in the world. World hunger would then disappear

altogether.

Consider this fact: It takes 10kg of plant protein (grains) to

produce 1kg of animal protein through the meat industry. By

doing so, we effectively lose 90% of the energy value of the

original crop. Doesn’t it then make more sense for us to eat

less meat so that the grains can be channeled to feed more

humans and fewer animals need to be bred for slaughter?

This is how the meat industry works: Grains are used to feed

the animals. The animals are slaughtered to provide meat for

humans. In the process of doing this, large amounts of energy

is wasted, and large amounts of greenhouse gases are also

emitted.

According to a report published by the United Nations

Food and Agriculture Organization, the livestock sector

generates 18% of greenhouse gas emissions as measured inCO2 equivalent. That’s more than the pollution generated

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by transport. It is also a major source of land and water

degradation.

My friend, Andy, alerted me to this very interesting newly

released July 2011 report on carbon footprint of eating meat by

the Environmental Working Group:

http://breakingnews.ewg.org/meateatersguide/a-meat-eaters-

guide-to-climate-change-health-what-you-eat-matters/

They listed some fun facts of what can be achieved over a year:

• If you eat one less burger a week, it’s like taking your

car off the road for 320 miles or line-drying your

clothes half the time.

• If your four-person family skips meat and cheese one

day a week, it’s like taking your car off the road forve weeks – or reducing everyone’s daily showers by 3

minutes.

• If your four-person family skips steak once a week,

it’s like taking your car off the road for nearly three

months.

• If everyone in the US ate no meat or cheese just one

day a week, it would be like not driving 91 billion

miles – or taking 7.6 million cars off the road.


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53

Of Slaughterhouses

and Baleelds

As long as there are slaughterhouses, there will be battleelds.

– Leo Tolstoy

For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other.

– Pythagoras

There is a hypothesis that if humans can be kind to animals,

there is a greater likelihood that they too would be kind toother humans. An international team of scientists has found

that vegans and vegetarians are more empathetic to both

human and animal suffering than non-vegetarians. In this

study, empathy quotient (“EQ”) was measured through a

60-question test, and researchers used functional MRI to

observe brain activity while the subject was shown a variety

of images, including images of human and animal suffering.

Researchers started with the hypothesis that ethical vegans

and vegetarians may experience empathy differently from

non-vegetarians, because the vegans and vegetarians in the

study had all chosen their diets based on certain moral beliefs.

They were correct. The study found that both vegans andvegetarians had a higher empathy than non-vegetarians when

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shown images of human and animal suffering. Interestingly,

the study found that both vegans and vegetarians had more

empathy for non-human animals than for humans!

The information above is extracted from http://animalrights.

about.com/b/2010/06/03/vegans-and-vegetarians-have-more-

empathy.htm

Not to hurt our humble brethren is our rst duty to them,

but to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission –to be of service to them wherever they require it.

If you have men who will exclude any of God’s creatures

from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will

deal likewise with their fellow men.

– Francis of Assisi

You might also have noticed that vegetarian animals like the

giraffe, deer, sheep and cow are tame and mild-mannered

while carnivorous animals like the lion, tiger, shark, snake

and T-Rex are ferocious. Interestingly, vegetarian animals

also generally have a much longer lifespan compared with

their carnivorous friends of the same size (see the chapter on

lifespan comparison).

Hmm…eat less meat, live longer, do more good with our lives?

That sure sounds like quite a good deal, doesn’t it?


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55

The Compassion

of a Great King

According to the history books, King Asoka of the Mauryan

Dynasty in ancient India was a ruthless warrior. But shortlyafter conquering Kalinga, he realised the error of his ways.

And upon his conversion to Buddhism, he introduced

many changes to inuence the Indian society to be more

compassionate, often leading by example.

On one of his many famous rock edicts, thus it is written:

Hundreds of thousands of living creatures were formerly slaughtered

every day for curries in the kitchens of his Majesty. As this edict is being

inscribed, only three living beings are killed daily: two peacocks and one

deer. And the deer is not slaughtered regularly. In the future, not even

these three animals will be slaughtered.

It was recorded that 2000 animals used to be slaughtereddaily at the King’s palace for the consumption of his family

and the staff at the palace. Upon the King’s decision to

practise compassion to animals, the 2000 animals were

drastically reduced to only three, and from three to almost

zero.

Such was the compassion of a great king.

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I have no doubt that it is a part of the destiny of the human race,

in its gradual improvement, to leave off eating animals,

as surely as the savage tribes have left off eating each other.

– Henry David Thoreau

Some people argue that as long as they do not do the killing,

meat-eating is justied and they have not contributed in any

way to the killing. That, of course, is a matter of personal

opinion. But the supply-demand theory still holds. The killingwill not stop until the eating stops.

All beings fear death.

Putting oneself in the place of another,

one should not kill or cause others to kill.

– The Buddha

Not only did King Asoka promote vegetarianism to his people

by setting a shining example, he also forbade the mutilation,

hunting and sacrice of animals. He built hospitals for

animals, planted Banyan trees along the roads to provide

shade for them, built watering holes for them to drink from,

had a team of ofcers who would feed the animals in the

jungle and protected mother-animals and their young inspecial enclosures during the nursing period. Soon after,

the Cakkavatti Kings in ancient Sri Lanka, Thailand and the

Indo-China region followed in King Asoka’s footsteps. Some

even became veterinarians to serve the animals. These kings

built the rst wild life sanctuaries in the world. Their people

avoided hunting and shing and were largely vegetarians.


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All these changed when colonization set in.

If you want to know why there are wars in the world, just listento the cries from the slaughterhouse at night. Eating animals for

food has numbed our hearts to the suffering of other living beings.

It is truly inhumane. We must cease the killing of animals and

cherish all lives---not just the lives of human beings but the lives

of all beings. Everything has a life of its own, be it the trees or the

mountains, and taking good care of them in fact safeguards our

own health.

– Master Cheng Yan


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58

Vegetarianism preserves life, health, peace, the ecology,

creates a more equitable distribution of resources, helps

to feed the hungry, encourages nonviolence for the animal

and human members of the planet, and is a powerful aid

for the spiritual transformation of the body, emotions,

mind, and spirit.

– Gabriel Cousens


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59

Who Lives Longer?

It appears from the list above that vegetarian animals

generally have a longer lifespan compared with carnivorousanimals of the same size and species. Some of the animals

on the list may not be strict vegetarians and are actually

omnivores. We humans are also omnivores, but I have a

feeling that at the rate the modern-day human devours meat,

we may just be eating more meat than the lions and tigers!

Animals eat only when hungry. Humans eat for pleasure.Check out any RM50++ eat-all-you-can buffet on a weekend,

Reptles

Tortoise – 152 years

Turtle – 123 years

Alligator – 63 years

Crocodile – 45 years

Cobra – 28 years

Mammals

Elephant – 70 years

Camel – 50 years

Horse – 50 years

Orang Utan – 50 years

Tyrannosaurus-Rex – 45 years

Deer- 35 years

Lion – 35 years

Tiger – 25 years

Wolf – 16 years

Fox – 14 years BirdsSwan – 102 years

Eagle – 55 years

Vulture – 39 years

Marine Animals

Whale – 116 years

Shark – 30 years

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and you’ll see what I mean. For some, it is all about queuing

up before the doors open, and having brunch, lunch, high-tea

and an early dinner, all rolled into one. And one wonders why

obesity, heart diseases, high cholesterol, diabetes and cancer

are on the rise!

Eat to live, or live to eat?

The choice is ours.


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61

Famous Vegetarians

Peace-loving vegetarians – Mahatma Gandhi, Aung Sang

Suu Kyi, Rosa Parks, Jane Goodall, Princess Diana, etc.

Pure genius vegetarians – Albert Einstein, Pythagoras,

Leonardo da Vinci, Socrates, Darwin, Plato, Sir Isaac Newton,

Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, Confucius, Nikola Tesla,

Ramanujan, Leo Tolstoy, Albert Schweitzer, Rabindranath

Tagore, George Bernard Shaw, Anthony Robbins, Steve

Jobs, Kalpana Chawla, etc. (many of them are Nobel Prize

laureates)

Sportspeople vegetarians – Martina Navratilova (nine time

Wimbledon champion), Carl Lewis (nine time Olympic

champion sprinter), Edwin Moses (Olympic champion

hurdles), Billie Jean King (39 Grand Slam titles in tennis),

Joe Namath (professional footballer), Stan Price (world

record bench press), Bill Pearl (four time Mr. Universe),

Dave Scott (six time winner Ironman Triathlon), Charlene

Wong Williams (Olympic champion gure skater), Jack La

Lanne (world-famous tness instructor and swimmer), Tony

Gonzales (All-Pac 10 footballer), Mac Danzig (boxer, martial

artist, athlete), Salim Stoudamire (NBA basketball player),

etc.

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Actor vegetarians – Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom

Hanks, Forest Whitaker, Jackie Chan, John Cleese, Dustin

Hoffman, Tobey Maguire, Willem Dafoe, Pierce Brosnan,

Richard Gere, Alec Baldwin, Robert Redford, Danny De Vito,

Christian Bale, etc.

Actress vegetarians – Jessica Biel, Natalie Portman, Anne

Hathaway, Liv Tyler, Ashley Judd, Cameron Diaz, Gwyneth

Paltrow, Pamela Anderson, Kim Basinger, Alicia Silverstone,Alyssa Milano, Jennifer Connelly, Reese Witherspoon, Daryl

Hannah, Candice Bergen, Kate Winslet, Joanna Lumley,

Brigitte Bardot, etc.

Singer vegetarians – Leona Lewis, Shania Twain, Carrie

Underwood, Sade, Tracy Chapman, Vanessa Williams, Annie

Lennox, Avril Lavigne, Justin Timberlake, Sir Paul McCartney

and the Beatles, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, etc.

The list above is not exhaustive. There are SO many famous

vegetarians in the world – then and now.

If anyone wants to save the planet, all they have to do is just stopeating meat. That’s the single most important thing you could

do. It’s staggering when you think about it. Vegetarianism takes

care of so many things in one shot: ecology, famine, cruelty. I am

a vegetarian because I realise that even little chickens suffer pain

and fear and experience a range of emotions.

– Sir Paul McCartney


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63

Take Your Pick

Ready to eat less meat? Here’s what you can be…

Vegans – Vegans avoid ALL animal products. They don’t eateggs, dairy products or even honey. They also avoid using

leather, fur and wool.

Fruitarians – Fruitarians eat only fruits, seeds, nuts and other

plant components that can be gathered without harming the

plant.

Lacto-vegetarians – They eat dairy products but not eggs.

Lacto-ovo-vegetarians – They eat both eggs and dairy

products. They just avoid meat. These would be the most

commonly found vegetarians.

Pesce-vegetarians – They are vegetarians who eat sh.

Pollo-vegetarians – They eat chicken and turkey but avoid

beef and pork.

Flexitarians – They are vegetarians who occasionally eat

some meat.

As stated earlier in this book, a survey conducted in the

UK showed that an average meat-eater would consume

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about 11,000 animals in his lifetime. So, when you choose to

reduce your meat consumption, do give yourself a pat on the

back. You’re already making a difference to the animals and

reducing the suffering of many animals in the factory farms

and slaughterhouses.


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65

A Daily Gentle Reminder

Why should I eat less meat?

Reduce Meat to Reduce the Cruelty in Animal Farms –The killing will not stop until the eating stops. The killing can

be reduced if the eating is reduced.

Reduce Meat for Better Health – Meat has saturated fat and

cholesterol, factory-farmed meat is toxic and may contain

Salmonella, E.coli and excessive adrenalin. Factory farming

also contributes to bird u, Japanese Encephalitis and madcow disease. Meat-eating has been associated with a higher

chance of heart disease, high blood pressure, cancer, etc.

Reduce Meat for Conservation of the Environment –

Reduce our carbon footprint and save the forests, our land,

the rivers and the very air that we breathe.

Reduce Meat to Alleviate World Hunger – Food for

livestock cultivation can be channeled to alleviate world

hunger if people eat less meat.

Reduce Meat for World Peace – It is sometimes said

that world peace begins at the dinner table. Vegetarians

are generally more gentle and peace-loving. That’s food forthought!

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66

True benevolence, or compassion, extends itself through

the whole of existence and sympathizes with the distress of

every creature capable of sensation.

– Joseph Addison


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67

Epilogue

In this little book, I have shared with you many reasons why

we might like to consider reducing our meat consumption.

For me, personally, I only need one reason – compassion for

the animals.

The suffering that goes on in factory farms is horrendous. We

can make a difference in reducing the number of animals that

need to be bred to be slaughtered even if we just go meatless

once a week.

So, let us make a conscious, conscientious and well-informed

choice towards more compassionate eating.

Remember that we ALWAYS have a choice.

To my mind, the life of a lamb is no less precious than that of ahuman being. I should be unwilling to take the life of a lamb for

the sake of the human body.

– Mahatma Gandhi


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68

Bumper Scker Quotes

We don’t need to eat anyone who would run, swim,

or y away if he could.

– James Cromwell

One may not eat what has a face.

– Paul McCartney

A vegetarian is a person who won’t eat anything

that can have children.

– David Brenner

How can you eat anything with eyes?

– Will Kellogg

We all love animals. Why do we call some “pets” and others “dinner?”

– K.D. Lang

Animals are my friends, and I don’t eat my friends.

– George Bernard Shaw


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69

Prayer of gentleness to all creatures

To all the humble beasts there be,

To all the birds on land and sea,

Great Spirit, sweet protection give

That free and happy they may live!

And to our hearts the rapture bring

Of love for every living thing;Make us all one kin, and bless

Our ways with Nature’s gentleness!

– John Galsworthy

(1867 – 1933)

Nobel Prize winner (Literature) 1932


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70

I am sometimes asked “Why do you spend so much of your time

and money talking about kindness to animals when there is so

much cruelty to men?”

I answer: “I am working at the roots.”

— George T. Angell


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Working together for the animals

AnimalCare is a charity that promotes caregiving to strayanimals and helps in their spay-neuter and medical needs.

Our Mission

1. To encourage people to be caregivers to animals.

2. To help in the spaying-neutering and medical needs ofstray animals.

3. To cultivate compassion to animals through education

How you can help and participate:

a. Be a caregiver to stray animals – feed the animals, getthem spayed/neutered and continue looking after themin a responsible manner. If you require help in spaying/neutering, please contact us.

b. Be a volunteer – help foster and rehome rescued animals,and contribute your expertise and skills so that we canwork together to provide more help to the animals.

c. Be our supporter – tell your friends about our work and

encourage them to start a similar programme in their owncommunities. Educate children from young to be kind toanimals.

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